SCENEzine Interview with Sam Macintyre of Marmozets

Back in 2014 we were blown away by UK band Marmozets debut album The Weird and Wonderful. The energy, urgency and aggression of their sound demands to be heard. Now fast forward a few years to late January 2018 we will see the release of Marmozets second and equally brilliant album Knowing What You Know Now. We caught up with Marmozets guitarist Sam Macintyre to learn more about their new album.

SCENEzine
Firstly how’s 2018 been treating you so far?

Sam Macintyre
You know what, I couldn’t ask for a better 2018 ever. It is so good man, loving it. Chilling out, writing tunes, waiting to release the album.

SCENEzine
It must be pretty exciting to be having new music out since it’s been a few years since your last album?

Sam Macintyre
Yeah of course it is. It was very stressful having so much music and waiting to release it. At least people have been kind of patient I guess.

SCENEzine
What does the album title “Knowing what you know now” mean to you?

Sam Macintyre
It basically covers every single emotion that everyone felt in the band really. The process did take a really long time purely because of injuries. Becca had two major knee surgeries so she had to go through that and learn how to walk again. So we couldn’t really do a lot for a while. She was bed bound, she couldn’t even get out of the house for months. We started writing tunes and didn’t like them so then we had to re-write the album because we weren’t happy with what we had. We are really glad that we did that though. I know a lot of people are saying why is it taking so long but we could either fucking serve you something that is from the shitest restaurant ever or we serve you something from a Michelin star restaurant instead.

SCENEzine
Going into the album was there any pressure to have the album live up to the success of your first album?

Sam Macintyre
Well that album has done it’s time really, we were kids when we wrote that. I’m not saying that we still don’t have that child like behaviour when it comes music. It’s one of those things where we just write whatever we want to write. We don’t think about a marketing area or anything, we just write what we want to write. We still rehearse at the same studio that we have been writing and rehearsing in for the past ten years. We have never changed that because it’s like home for us, home for our writing. We just get in the room and come up with some songs. We don’t necessarily think or talk about it we just write.

SCENEzine
A super catchy track from the album is “Play”. Did that one just start off with the song being written around the guitar riff?

Sam Macintyre
Yeah kind of. I brought that to the table. Also where the one, two, three play thing comes from is when I was with my four year old sister. I set up a studio at my mother’s place in Norfolk because it was a complete getaway from everyone. My mum lives in a really small town so I can play music in this area and I’ll be fine. So I got my little sister to come in and I said to her I want you to say one, two, three, play down the microphone. Then I made it into a sample and the song became based around that. We went down to London to finish it off with a good friend of ours who recorded the first album. We went to his studio in Brixton and finished it up.

SCENEzine
A track I really gravitate towards on the album is “Run with the Rhythm”. How did that one come about?

Sam Macintyre
I was living in Scotland and I sat down on my sofa and I had a couple of glasses of wine. I remember I had just had a shower and sat down in my shorts on the sofa and picked up the acoustic guitar and started playing it, without even thinking. I started playing it then ended up singing it and recorded it on my notes. Then two days later I went down to our rehearsal studio, got the whole band together and played it to them. They were like sweet that sounds great lets record that. It kind of just happened naturally.

SCENEzine
I’d love to hear that song live.

Sam Macintyre
Dude yeah it’s a lot better live. It’s a lot louder and more punchy. It’s got that extra special sauce that you can’t actually get on a record. There’s something about the live aspect that is just a lot more fulfilling.

SCENEzine
We managed to catch you live in Sydney at Newtown Social club when you were in Australia. I’m guessing you had a blast on that tour?

Sam Macintyre
Yeah dude it was so much fun. The first day I was doing tequila shots at this bar in Sydney and we set off the smoke alarm in this beachfront bar because we were smoking too close to the fucking bar. Fire engines came down it was pretty crazy.

SCENEzine
Is there any news on when you might return to Australia?

Sam Macintyre
No news yet to be honest we haven’t planned that far ahead yet.

SCENEzine
Well you guys must love Australia your new album is being released on Australia Day.

Sam Macintyre
Fuck yeah that’s awesome. I didn’t know that.

SCENEzine
Lastly do you have any valentines day advice for all the lads out there?